How Turkey Put A Prompt End To Its Dramatic Corruption Investigation

The main reason Turkey's government has been roiled with resignations, the Turkish Lira and domestic assets are plunging, the central bank is paralyzed, and pundits are ever more concerned about what the potential contagion effect is should the worst happen to the country, has been an ongoing scandal involving corruption at the very highest echelons of power as we reported late last year. So, what is a perturbed government, on the verge of losing legitimacy and credibility, to do? Well, following Stalin's advice always works: "no man, no problem"... if perhaps not quite as "terminally" then just as decisively. According to Reuters the corruption investigation has been brought to a screeching halt, after Turkey's government 'purged' both the judiciary and police systems, firing and transferring dozens of judges and officers and making it impossible for any ongoing investigative efforts to continue.

However, this may just be the beginning of Turkey PM Erdogan's problem: "Turkey's purge of the judiciary and police has brought a corruption investigation shaking the government to a grinding halt and could undermine confidence in state institutions, senior legal figures and the opposition said on Wednesday."

Ninety-six judges and prosecutors were reassigned overnight, the biggest purge of the judiciary since a graft scandal erupted on December 17 with the arrest of businessmen close to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and three ministers' sons.

Erdogan has portrayed the corruption inquiry as an attempted "judicial coup" orchestrated by U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whose network of sympathizers, known locally as "Cemaat" (religious community), hold considerable sway in many parts of the state including the police and legal system.

The government's response, transferring thousands of police officers and seeking to tighten its grip on the courts, has brought sharp criticism from the European Union, which Turkey has been seeking to join for decades, and rattled investors, helping send the lira to record lows.

"Turkey is ablaze with the justice agenda," said Metin Feyzioglu, chairman of the Turkish bar association.

"Everyone in the country has started to ask when there is an investigation or trial what side the judge, prosecutor or police officer is on," he said. "The foundation of the state and the country's legal order has been shaken."

The roughly 120 judges and prosecutors reassigned since the graft scandal broke make up a fraction of the 13,000 working in Turkey as a whole, but the move has put sensitive cases on hold and shaken confidence within the profession.

The government's party line so far has been simple: as explained before, "Erdogan has portrayed the corruption inquiry as an attempted "judicial coup" orchestrated by U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whose network of sympathizers, known locally as "Cemaat" (religious community), hold considerable sway in many parts of the state including the police and legal system."

As a result, Erdogan decided to simply reassign the entire judicial branch!

Judges and prosecutors across the country - from Istanbul in the west to the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, and from the southern border region with Syria to the northern Black Sea coast - were reassigned in the move announced late on Tuesday.

The High Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK), already headed by the justice minister and set to fall further under government control under a ruling party bill before parliament, said the 96 were being transferred to new locations. The government denied involvement.

"These appointments have absolutely nothing to do with our ministry. This is completely at the discretion of the relevant (HSYK) chamber," a senior justice ministry official said.

The police fared similarly:

Nearly 500 police, mostly in Ankara, were also removed from their posts and reassigned on Wednesday, media reports said, bringing the total since December 17 to several thousand. Erdogan's supporters say the police and judiciary are dominated by Cemaat sympathizers and that the government's actions strengthen not weaken their independence. Erdogan himself refers to a "parallel state" within the judiciary.

But Aykut Erdogdu, the chief corruption investigator for the main opposition CHP, said the purge had become so broad that many of those removed were not even linked to Cemaat.

"We've reached the point where members of these institutions are unable to do their job," Erdogdu told Reuters. "More important is the damage done to these institutions. It can take decades to build up competent staff to run the institutions of state. Moreover, it will take years to undo the memory of this among prospective candidates in the future."

It seems that the people, at least some of then, aren't buying it:

"While the government claims that it is fighting against a parallel structure, it is actually closing off the corruption investigations ... It is taking away those who know their cases best. It causes a great deal of harm," said Murat Arslan, chairman of the YARSAV association of judges and prosecutors.

"It is quite clear there is political intervention here ... they are quite clearly intimidating the whole of the judiciary. It is sending the message that 'you cannot conduct an investigation which touches me'," he told Reuters.

Welcome to Banana republic status gents... incidentally Turkey is way behind of the US, where no investigation that touches the people in charge is allowed, while any prosecution of corporate CEO that are deemed Too Big To Prosecute is promptly killed by none other than the Justice Department. The corrupt Justice Department.

But importantly, unlike the US where the myth that one party is different than another is just that, in Turkey the people do have the power to replace those in charge:

Erdogan has essentially banished the army from politics in 11 years in power. His popularity seems as yet largely unaffected by the current turmoil and there is no sign of the summer demonstrations that shook his government reigniting on a similar scale. He will, in short, be trusting voters will flee towards the elected power.

And if voters support him, well, they too deserve the government they "pick."

I did not say that, Ghordius. I contend that there is some real corruption everywhere, of course some places are worse than others. Scandinavia, for example, seems to be pretty transparent -- low in corruption -- probably for cultural reasons. And that is commendable. But, I hear immigration is affecting Sweden, corruption will follow in its wake...

seems to be the "in thing" these days. The...beautiful thing really...about the USA is that "we're not gonna go there." We're cheer on our Olympiads...and try and imagine how we got out of this one without clear and absolute catastrophic effect.

One day I look forward to writing a history about it.

And I mean that.

My working title is "My time on Zero Hedge...and how America survived too."

He should have pulled a Clinton, and simply fire the whole lot and hire new ones. Then start investigating the folks who were whining about corruption, put the tax folks on the trail of any journalists who don't toe the line. Everything will quite down nicely.

Here we spy on all judges, investigators and even their families. Transferring judges and investigators is so primitive and so pre-NSA.

The stunning implication of this passage is that NSA spying targets not only ordinary American citizens, but also Supreme Court justices, members of Congress and the White House itself. One could hardly ask for a more naked exposure of a police state.

Sounds like the future plans of the U.S. Government to me...I mean hey, if it works for Turkey, right?

It's not like o-bomb-ya hasn't already started the process with a massive purging in the U.S. military and anyone who would oppose him.

The American sheeple wouldn't even know what happened if it ever came down to something like what Turkey is doing. The criminal, state-run, propaganda, puppet media would smooth it all out for them. John Stewart would do a "funny" monologue to brush all worreis aside. And the sheeple can go back to shoveling GMO down their throats and washing it down with poison fluoride water.

As long as the FSA (Free Shit Army) are getting their "benefitz" then they don't give a fuck how high, how deep, and how twisted the corruption is by their socipathic slave masters.

As it shouldn't DC. He's gutting our military and building up his own personal army through the DHS(S) and Homeland (vaterland) Security, just as he said he would. He wants allegiance to himself instead of the Constitution.

It's as clear as the lies spewing forth from his treasonous and traitorous mouth.

A drive by some American cities to cut costly police retirement benefits has led to an extraordinary face-off between local politicians and the law enforcement officers who work for them.

In Costa Mesa, Calif., lawmaker Jim Righeimer says he was a target of intimidation because he sought to curb policepensions. In a lawsuit in November, Righeimer accused the Costa Mesa police union and a law firm that once represented them, of forcing him to undergo a sobriety test (he passed) after driving home from a bar in August 2012.

That followed a call to 911 by private detective Chris Lanzillo, who worked for the police union and the law firm that represented it, according to the suit. Lanzillo is also named as a defendant, accused of following Righeimer home from the bar.

Erdogan still has a lot going for him. Gulen's cronies are being purged from the police and judicial system. Afterall, what gives this obscure sharia movement (close second to Pak's Taliban voraciousness?),... homebased in the mountainous Poconos, USSA religious organization... which, btw has a net worth of billions of US$$$, to run his coin/ psyop (divide and conquer) as a political trump card for uncle sam as a favor to the 'House of Saud' when pulled from and for, vest`ed inerest?ed!?!

To me, both Erdogan and Assad have run their course of fucking up their countries respectively in the name of democracy and prosperity! Assad is a horrible example to pair Erdogan with, but I must admit that Assad is pure Evil like his old man, period! Assad created a lot of headaches for Erdogan early on stirring the pot with Turkey's PKK Party!

Secularism was never a problem in the ME before the French, British, and American's used it as a tool for ?Satan? Think?

Mesoptamia... the cradle of civilization, where the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates River gave life and birth to the modern world's very existence, was begotten in Turkey! Turkey controls today, the rivers vital resources and surpluses. Syria relies heavily upon Turkey's control of the Euphrates, but it is the Iraqi's very existence that relies on both the Euphrates and Tigris in which Erdogan controls the spigots! ----- `You've got oil and gas, we've got tons of water-- in all fairness, which commodity is more fair valued in our particuliar situation.

Iran's Shiite's and Iraq's Shiite's (2008) governments along with Syria's Alawite (Shiite 2nd cousin?, and really not a worthy relative to begin with?) government have no bitch with secularism. But Turkey does with their Kurds in the SE, as does Syria with their Kurds in the North ( note: autonomy is spreading, as the Kurdish population grows 5:1? in all Kurdish geography's) which Iraqi's have no particilar bitch with as long as good revenue sharing is maintained in the vast Iraqi oil/gas rich north, and Iran has absolutely no problem with Kurd's at all, period!

*** 'From the dated backburner pages, to the oven roaster frontal`pager-- where the stove needs fuel and the oven dinner desparately needs a hot cup of Turkish Tea?!?

"Water is behind Turkey Syria Border Tensions" dated 10/6/98,... but ~fifteen (15-3=12?) years later it's Qatar, now Saudi Arabia' BandarBush and gas line / oil hub with a healthy dose of secular jingoism,... muckety uppity the wonk!!! Hundreds of thousands of children have died from cold or starvation for two men's legacy, and a 'sharia law' written by a saint, sadly, later interpretated by satan!

Ps. The people of the ME should be outraged by this inhumanity... yet, if only flesh and blood could provide such efficiency as a barrel of oil we'd finally rid our scourge upon planet earth once and for all! We are worse than animals, we are worse than a bubonic plague, we are an embarrasment to the creator! jmo